Reports of Instagram’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated

Meta’s various apps are the closest we have the US to everything apps. The feature sets are deep enough that people can use them in different ways.

in multiple interviews with 15- to 26-year-olds, Gen Z people, they said that they used Instagram to keep in touch with friends, scope out crushes, build businesses, and pour over cooking videos. But out of all of its features, they seemed least interested in the polished public photo feed that had once been Instagram’s marquee offering.

But Instagram (and TikTok) aren’t social networks, they’re social media

it feels more comfortable to post on TikTok than it does on Instagram. And I think that’s a common narrative and sentiment that we hear all the time. But I think the reality is that most people, young people in particular, don’t really feel comfortable posting anywhere at this point

Instagram is a mix of entertainment, inbox (DMs as the new email), and search. At least for younger users.

What does this mean for how brands use Instagram?

The traditional feed is certainly easiest for most. But how much are people engaging with this “legacy” feature.

On-platform search plus Google indexing posts for off-platform search means the Instagram feed is more like Pinterest than TikTok. A visual microblog.

via Behind the Numbers


Zuck’s dream of fully automated ad platform is starting to come true

Meta said that nearly two million advertisers are now using GenAI video generation tools. That’s about 20% of Meta’s entire advertiser base based on the latest available estimates.

I do think it was really telling that Zuckerberg was careful to say that these tools are the most valuable for small and medium-sized businesses and that agencies will continue to play an important role with big brands.

This will continue to bifurcate between those with big budgets and those without.

via Jasmine Enberg on Behind the Numbers


When messaging your product, don’t say what’s missing.

Renaming the “𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐭-𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭” to “𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝-𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭” made diners 200% more likely to pick the plant-based option.

&

renamed “𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘢𝘳-𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨” to “𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒔”.
Doing so increased sales of the carrots by 25%.

Why? Loss aversion. Losses hurt more than gains feel good, even if we say we want less of thing (e.g. sugar).

caveat: disregard this if what your product is missing is what you’re turning into an enemy to stand against (e.g. Liquid Death’s death to plastic tag).


Benchmarks are useful for quick comparison and decisions. But forget what the benchmark is or that it isn’t an immutable law and it becomes a trap.

The CEO of Bronco Wine – which sells the Charles Shaw “Two Buck Chuck” wine at Trader Joe’s – was once asked how he’s able to sell wine for less than the cost of bottled water.

He replied: “They’re overcharging you for the water. Don’t you get it?”

The real question is how can they sell bottled water for more than the cost of a bottle of wine?

Comparison goes both ways.

via Morgan Housel


According to Goldman Sachs research:

Our estimates imply that US consumers had absorbed 22% of tariff costs through June but that their share will likely rise to 67% by October if the later tariffs have the same impact over time as the earliest tariffs

Not sure how recent announcements and rate changes may impact this, but it doesn’t bode well for Q4 and already meh consumer confidence indices.

via CNBC

side note: I can’t find the original research/note from GS and it’s annoying me